Revelations
Upon finding themselves stranded on a dusty, boring world for three weeks, Rembrandt discovers a series of science fiction novels describing in eerie detail a human/Kromagg war. Intrigued, the Sliders research author Isaac Clark and track him to his mountainside retreat. Quinn and Colin plead their case to Clark and his daughter Catherine, and after she dismisses their claims, Isaac admits he is in fact a refugee from the world he’s written about. The Sliders then set about convincing him to return home and introduce them to Michael Mallory so that they might obtain his anti-Kromagg weapon.
Clark gives the Sliders a revised set of coordinates to his homeworld and the six slide into a world that’s healed and moved on after 20 years of peace. The Clarks split off from the Sliders and head for the Chandler while Quinn and Colin lead Rembrandt and Maggie to their homecoming. The Mallories reunited, Quinn, Colin, and Maggie decide to stay here, leaving Rembrandt to return home alone. While searching out Isaac Clark, he learns the writer and his brother are fugitives, and that he’s led the Sliders to the wrong world, one where the Kromaggs faced a holocaust. Quinn discovers this simultaneously, and the Sliders reunite as they flee this world and its oppressive regime, hoping one day to find home and save Earth Prime.
Worlds Visited
 | Big WorldMaggie made quite an impression on one of the locals, where the entire world is comprised of people ten times the size of a normal human. |
 | Gormak WorldA dull pit where the Jackie Robinson made a mark of a different kind and where slider Isaac Clark has been exiled for his work with the Kromaggs. |
 | Kromagg Double PrimeHumans here have waged a brutal war of genocide against a weaker and less advanced race of Kromagg. |
Details
- There’s a NO DUMPING sign in what ironically looks to be a dumping zone.
- The beat-up green truck Quinn and Colin work on has a license plate of X67423.
- Chuck Norris stars in Touched by a Ranger.
- Jackie Robinson was the first black to become accepted as a saxophonist on Gormak World, until that time an all-white art form. His story is chronicled in Bebop King: The Life of Jackie Robinson, the greatest saxophone player this world has ever seen.
- The Sliders are hanging out in Needles for their stay on Gormak World.
- The reverse directory screen looks like this when Isaac Clark’s number comes up:818 555 7340 : 1950 Hwy 2, Wrightwood
818 555 7341 : 23047 Crest Drive, Wood Hills
818 555 7342 : 1951 Hwy 2, Wrightwood
818 555 7343 : 522 Oak Avenue, Wrightwood
818 555 7344 : 6335 Homewood Avenue, Wood Hills
818 555 7345 : 121 Maple Street, Wrightwood - Isaac Clark can be reached through his daughter at (818) 555-7342.
- Isaac Clark’s Jeep has an ultra-futuristic license plate reading 3GFM52A.
- The Kromagg’s tattoo is 97685901C4.
- The Kromagg weapon was perfected at Alamogordo.
Character Information
- Isaac Clark was exiled from Kromagg Double Prime for working with the Kromaggs.
- During an uprising, Alt-Quinn was taken hostage, and it was that event that made the Mallory’s choose to slide their children away.
- Alt-Quinn died from a flu epidemic on the earth he was placed for safety.
Money Matters
- With three and a half weeks before the slide, the Sliders have to get jobs. Rembrandt, Quinn and Colin all work at the gas station/motel, while Maggie waitresses a few miles away.
- When Quinn and Colin need to purchase a modem for their laptop (?), Maggie digs into her personal party stash to give them the money.
- They also purchase a reverse phone directory for the laptop.
Notable Quotes
- “Having nothing to do wouldn’t be so bad if we had a different kind of nothing to do sometimes.” — Quinn.
- “Hey bub, not a good idea to smoke around those pumps.” — Quinn.
- “Two schools of thought — Marty thinks he fired me, I know I quit!” — Maggie, the consummate waitress.
- “Kind of like passing the torch, huh, Q-Ball?” — Rembrandt. You don’t know how right you are, chief.
Nitpicks/Errors
- So Isaac Clark fooled them. Why can’t the Sliders put what they thought was the formula into the timer and slide home?
- Where did “37X” and “39X” come from? The coordinates that we saw in Slidecage were 405 134 101 118.
- What is the deal with the tagalong vortex at the end?
- Shouldn’t the Mallorys be living in San Francisco?
Neatpicks
Quinn’s comments about showers, knives and wigs is especially appropriate considering they were filming at the Bates Motel set at Universal Studios.
History Lesson
On Kromagg Double Prime, the humans and Kromaggs evolved very similarly as they did on Kromagg Prime, except here, there was no aggressive military campaign against the humans. The Kromaggs were sub-par on the intelligence scale and had little capacity for improvement. Apparently, however, their docile nature wasn’t enough for the humans.
Led by Michael and Elizabeth Mallory, the humans created sliding technology as well as a horrible device that killed most of the Kromaggs. Those that weren’t killed were placed in internment camps and killed much in the same way that Jews were destroyed during Hitler’s genocide. The Kromagg “problem” ended, the Mallory’s were proclaimed heroes and went to retrieve their sons, whom they had placed in foster care on parallel worlds. They returned empty handed.
A number of Kromagg sympathizers, including Doctor Isaac Clark, were exiled from this world, knowing they could never return. Clark and his brother had built a formidable case against the Mallory’s and hoped to used it in the World Court to show the atrocities visited upon the Kromaggs by the humans.
The Inside Slide
So what’s the titular revelation? That the script was significantly retooled — and the real story never made it to screen, according to Marc Scott Zicree at Dragon*Con.
Looking at certain clues in prior episodes — particularly Colin’s quantum signature varying from Quinn’s in The Alternateville Horror — it’s clear that production had a plan for his character that would eventually play a part with the season-long Kromagg arc.
Initially, the Sliders were to return to Kromagg Prime in “Revelations,” and up until Isaac Clarke’s change of the dimensional coordinates the script went largely unchanged. However, after sliding with Isaac and his daughter, Colin was supposed to begin acting very strangely.
Why? He was really a Kromagg plant — created from Quinn’s DNA (taken in Invasion and designed to infiltrate the Sliders’ journey towards home so the Kromaggs could have a vicious homecoming. The microdots? Pure fabrications.
And was that Earth Prime they landed on in Genesis and The Exodus? Nope.
The Colin arc would have ended in Quinn and Colin fighting as the Kromaggs triumphantly return to their homeworld. So what happened?
Executive Producer David Peckinpah nixed the idea. It’s also speculation that with Jerry O’Connell on board as a producer (and a potential 5th season), Colin was deemed more long-term than the fourth season villain, and keeping him a willing Sliders would let him return to the series if need be.
According to the Dimension of Continuity, Lipschitz Live was Peckinpah’s excuse to force the change of direction midseason, as the Colin clone negated the idea that Colin was a one-of-a-kind machination of the Kromaggs.
Guest Stars
- Jerry Hardin as Isaac Clark
- Kristanna Loken as Catherine Clark
- Ken Jenkins as Robert Clark
- John Walcutt as Michael Mallory
- Marnie McPhail as Elizabeth Mallory
- J. Anthony McCarthy as Man
- Joey Stafura as Clerk
- John Walcutt also appears as Michael Mallory in Genesis, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, Slidecage and My Brother’s Keeper.
- Marnie McPhail also appears as Elizabeth Mallory in Genesis and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?